UK PC market steps out of recession

Microscope contributor

The UK PC market has finally moved into growth following an annus horriblis, Gartner shipment numbers have revealed. Sales went up 3.3% in the fourth quarter to 3.8 million units but the spike was not strong enough to prevent a yearly decline of 3% based on 12.8 million PCs.

The UK PC market has finally moved into growth following an annus horriblis, Gartner shipment numbers have revealed.

Sales went up 3.3% in the fourth quarter to 3.8 million units but the spike was not strong enough to prevent a yearly decline of 3% based on 12.8 million PCs.

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The data was the clearest sign of a recovery in the UK since the market hit a downward slope in late 2008, said Gartner principal analyst Ranjit Atwal.

"Despite the collapse of the professional market, consumers continued to buy PCs, particularly notebooks and that bodes well for vendors as the economy improves," he told MicroScope.

Once again there was an obvious dichotomy in the UK; consumer notebook and desktop sales climbed 30% and 7% respectively as commercial portables dived 20% and business desktops dropped 7%.

The vendor line-up reflected the market dynamics with Acer consolidating its lead at the top by growing 32% to take just over 19% market share. HP and Dell both saw sales fall 7.1% which left them with 18.9% and 16.5% share.

Atwal said the vendor line-up may change later this year when the expected corporate PC refresh takes place, "there is pent up demand and we expect HP and Dell to consume that, I can't see Acer pinching that business."

Vendors and resellers had sounded a battle cry over the data centre in recent times said Mike Rodwell, commercial director at Computacenter but there would be a resurgence in demand for PCs.

"2010 will be a tough year but we are going back to our roots, desktops will be a big play over the next few years," he said, adding that Windows 7 had provided the impetus many needed to refresh aging machines.

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